Valentine's Day

With all the recent blogging, I forgot to briefly post about Kevin's and my Valentine's Day.  It's hard to believe this is our fifth Valentine's. 

We ate at Granite City on Friday night, and on Sunday night, we made Chicken Parmesan and a delicious apple tart!

Kevin surprised me with beautiful flowers on Valentine's Day!

EMHE, Day 2, part 2

Kevin and I ate tonight in the food tent, and it was pretty good.  Dinner tonight was provided by Cargill.  We were also given information on the house and allowed to get right up to it.  Here are some closer photos.

Extreme Makeover, Home Edition: Day 2, Feb 18

My parents stayed over with us last night to help keep Benton calm today while Kevin and I were both at work.  They left this afternoon with Benton, and they won't come back until it's almost done here.  I miss Benton already. :(  Needless to say, it is noisy.  We are also starting to notice yard damage from the big semi trucks.  Thankfully, the builders and show managers have been very proactive and talk to us as soon as something happens to discuss how to fix damage.

They are still working on the foundation.  I will get closer pictures once there is more to see.  Tomorrow they are expecting thousands of people on shuttles for the visitor day.  You will see the people rails in one of the photos.  We are still very excited for the family!

Still digging and pouring concrete.  They are also using precast concrete.  My husband is in structural engineering heaven.

At the far back is the famous "move that bus" bus.

Big equipment

The catering truck right in front of our front yard.  We are able to eat anytime at the catering tent and truck.  We haven't yet, but we might try it soon.  In the back you can see the people rails and one of the many very bright stadium lights.  There is also a VIP tent that we have access to.  Again, we haven't gone over yet.

Tow zone signs in our front yard and our security team.

Stay tuned! Framing begins tonight/early tomorrow!

Extreme Makeover, Home Edition: Day 1 Thursday, Feb 17

Since we bought our home a year and a half ago, we have been the only house on our cul-de-sac.  We found out last week, though, that it was about to change drastically!  A former WSU baseball player was in a terrible accident last year, and he is now a paraplegic.  Carl Hall and his family, who regularly attend the Catholic church and school near where we live, were surprised yesterday that they were chosen for Extreme Makeover, Home Edition.  They will be our new neighbors in one week! 

 I was so excited when Kevin and I heard the name earlier in the week because my parents, who live at the Council Grove lake, are two houses down from his extended family's lake cabin.  It's nice to hear this is happening to such a nice and deserving family!

They broke ground on Thursday, and it has been very active at our house, to say the least!  We were given parking passes to get through the security checkpoints.  We are staying at a hotel provided by the show starting this evening, as it is very bright with stadium lights and noisy with 24/7 building.  The house is about three lots down from ours on the same cul-de-sac. 

Here are the pictures from day 1!

From the side of our backyard - The first tent is a catering tent.

Front side yard - closer view of tents

Our driveway

Front yard looking South

Front yard looking West - the Catholic School can be seen in the distance

This will be an adventure for us!  We are so excited to have such wonderful neighbors!  Stay tuned for more daily updates!

Love this

I stumbled upon a great dog silhouette art company on Etsy, and I had to have an Australian Shepherd for my office.  It's from Mod-Dog.com, and I LOVE it!  

It fits in perfectly with my loves on my wall by my computer desk. 

The loves are not to scale regarding importance, I assure you.

Grad Girls Weekend 2011

The second annual Grad Girls Weekend was held this year in Manhattan as Momma Bailey is due with baby #2 any day!  Sarah was a wonderful hostess for all of us out-of-towners.  Mandy came up from Fort Worth late Friday night and met me in Wichita to carpool the rest of the way.  Dana drove from Topeka and joined us the following morning, and Stacey (the Momma-to-be) joined us for Saturday evening fun.  The entire weekend was filled with relaxation, eating, lots of shopping (see the pic below), and tons of catching up!  There was also wine tasting (followed by a bottle of wine), which is becoming tradition.  I love these ladies, and I enjoy our time together so much!  There was some shop talk (we all are in student affairs, so it was fun to compare notes of our different positions), and we joked we were solving all of higher ed's problems.  :) 

I'm already looking forward to next year's get-together!  Place TBA, but it will always fall on MLK weekend!

Christmas Overview

We had many celebrations for Christmas this year.  On Christmas Eve, Kevin and I went to church to sing in choir, and then we headed home to have our Christmas Eve dinner for the two of us.  We made duck and champagne risotto, with a delicious homemade apple torte. 

 

 On Christmas morning, we woke up and opened presents from one another.  My favorite Christmas present - a HUGE canvas of my favorite wedding picture from Kevin.  We then headed to Council Grove and stayed until Sunday morning to spend time with my family.

Love this!

Kevin's family came to visit the following week, and we had the Reynolds' Family Christmas Celebration on Thursday evening.  Our final Christmas celebration was on New Year's Day with the Sherwood family (Kevin's extended family: my Mother-in-Law's parents, siblings, etc.).  We are blessed to have as many family members as we do with which to celebrate!